Trying to use Easytouch 8 with Intelliflo and change speeds

[gid305]

Hi. I had a pro install an intelliflo VS pump and an easytouch 8 indoor controller. My system is a pool with spa that overflows into the pool, with a suction side cleaner. I have separate pumps for the spa jets and a waterfall.

The point of this voluntary change was to save energy. I've read through lots of posts here and elsewhere and thought I understood how to make this work with the "features", but I can't get the pump to change speeds the way I was expecting.

I have set various speeds on the pump settings: "pool" at 1850 rpm, "pool high" at 2550 rpm, "pool heat" at 2750 rpm, etc.

I set Feature 1 as "pool high", and the best function for this I think is "generic". ???? Feature circuit 1 is enabled.

What I'm trying to do is run the pool at the 1850 rpm setting through the schedule for, say, 10 hours, and for 4 hours inside that window I want to ramp up the speed to the pool high 2550 setting to let the cleaner do its thing. I set the feature 1 ("pool high") schedule to turn on and off within the longer "pool" period. Isn't this the whole point of the features, to change something while that relay is on?

But when I test this out, what I find is that when the pool comes on, it is at the "pool high" setting of 2550 rpm. SHouldn't this be at 1850, since that's what "pool" is set to at the intelliflo speed settings? And one time during a test, the pool did come on at 1850 rpm but before the scheduled time for the "pool high" to turn on, the speed jumped to 2550 and stayed there even after the "pool high" schedule ended.

Can someone please help and explain how to set this up? It's making me regret this "upgrade" compared to my old Compool 3800, which was nice easy, either on or off.

Thanks for whatever help you can provide.

 

[JasonLion]

Re: Trying to use Easytouch 8 with Intelliflo and change spe

Welcome to TFP!

Having problems like these are common with the IntelliTouch. Their manual leaves something to be desired.

The first thing to understand is that if several things that have pump speeds set are "on" then the pump will run at the highest speed of all the things that are on. So if pool is on and pool high is also on you will get high speed. Another thing to watch out for is if you have pool size and turnovers defined for an IntelliFlo VF, they will tend to over-ride other speed settings as the system tried to meet it's own idea of how much water should be moved. Finally, you always want to have a speed assigned to pump. This should be the lowest speed you want to use. If no speed is assigned to pump then it will continue at the previous speed, whatever that might be.

Another thing to keep in mind is that feature settings with assigned speeds can turn the pump on even when the control system is programmed to have the pump off.

Finally, this is all quite confusing at first for most people, but once you wrap your head around how they think about things it gets way way easier.

 

[gid305]

Re: Trying to use Easytouch 8 with Intelliflo and change spe

Thanks! I knew about the higher speed winning, but that info helped me figure out what the problem was: I had manually set the Feature circuit "pool high" to ON, so as soon as the pool turned on, it defaulted to that higher speed setting. What I didn't realize was that I needed the controller to automatically turn the Feature circuit - and that's certainly not in the manual! I thought I needed to activate that Feature circuit.

Thanks for your help.